A Cleveland woman will spend the rest of her life in jail after she hired hitmen to murder her husband, Cleveland Fire Lt. William Walker.
Uloma Curry-Walker was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday. Members of Lt. Walker's family, along with Cleveland Fire Chief Angelo Cavillo, gave remarks to the court.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley paid tribute to Lt. Walker while announcing the news of Curry-Walker's sentence.
“Lt. Walker was a proud and distinguished member of the Cleveland Fire Department,” Prosecutor O’Malley said. “Uloma Curry-Walker is a cold-hearted murderer and it is fitting she spend the rest of her life behind bars.”
On Nov. 3, 2013, Lt. William Walker was shot dead by two men in the driveway of his family's Lampson Dr. home on Cleveland's east side. Investigators later learned Uloma Curry-Walker, along with her daughter and daughter's boyfriend, arranged for the men to kill Lt. Walker in order to collect his insurance policy. Curry-Walker had run up a massive amount of debt and also faked Stage 4 breast cancer.
According to authorities, Curry-Walker offered her daughter's boyfriend, Chad Padgett, $10,000 to have Lt. Walker murdered, then after getting her husband to leave the house she coordinated with those involved through text messages on the night of the attack. She left Lt. Walker's cremated remains in his car before fleeing out of state.
Curry-Walker was found guilty of multiple charges, including conspiracy and aggravated murder, last month. Her daughter, just 17 at the time of the murder, was sentenced in juvenile court.
Chad Padgett pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter with conspiracy last year and received a 28-year sentence. The men he hired to kill Lt. Walker, Christopher Hein (Padgett's cousin) and Ryan Dorty, also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 18 and 23 years, respectively.
